Elst Outskirts

This map does not have many issues IMO, however....
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The buildings that cover the cutoffs for the fuel points are extremely dominant. Multiple windows are facing the cutoff and they are made of cement as well. There are windows on all 4 sides as well. Basically you must hold them at all costs which is kinda annoying and limits dynamic play on this map.

Not only that, but...
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there are also 2 buildings (1 on each side) that are essential for holding the fuel point. All together limits dynamic play even further cuz those buildings are way too important and effective for ignoring them. This also makes the map kinda unbalanced for factions that are not that good at clearing buildings unless you pick a certain commander (UKF, USF, OKW).


My suggested options to improve this map are:

1) swap the cement buildings at the cutoffs (pictures 1 & 2) with a wooden structure, for example a wooden church like the one on semosky left to the middle VP or the one on General Mud above the right VP.

2) Replace the houses that cover the fuel (pictures 3 & 4) with heavy cover, e. g. a destroyed-tank-wreck.

3) remove the windows on the cement cutoff-houses that cover the side that is facing the middle of the map to make HMGs inside those houses less dominant and flanking more accessible
Show Spoiler

4) add more heavy cover (e. g. truck wrecks) around both cut-off houses, especially on the north side. The south player already has a little truck wreck near the southern cutoff house which makes the house a little bit less frustrating to deal with if the opponent captured it, but the north player only has a truck wreck which is located on the left side of the northern cut-off house, on the northern side of the house there is only a little fence that includes minimal heavy cover.


Needless to say it should be enough to pick ONE option.

Very good thread. Agree with everything said. The garrisons on Elst are just too dominant. The map is good nonetheless but can be very frustrating to play.

Buildings placed on cut offs and major resource points are just plain bad in designing of a map.

There's also disparity in space late game because of the house carcass north side of mid vp whereas its mirrored by destroyable trees in the south. Its way easier to hold mid vp from south

At first glance there seemed to be some imbalance around the wooden VP buildings. However, they are very close in design. The main difference being the large log piles (RED) utility vs the sight blocking bushes (RED).
- The EAST VP logs may give you safer LV retreat options mid game.
- The WEST VP bushes may be easier to get close to an MG and toss a grenade or even flame it thru the hedgerow.
- The EAST VP house has additional green cover hay mounds outside of it allowing for another flanking option.
- The WEST VP has arguably better yellow cover.



There is a slight imbalance with the wooden houses over looking the fuels. Again, nothing major and may not warrant any change.
- The EAST FUEL has much closer sight blockers giving an approaching squad a better chance of getting into grenade range before an MG could target them. And sight blockers 2 and 3 are on the corner of the building which would require an MG to change position to target an approaching squad.
- The distances to these buildings from each base is close (approx 212M), however, the SOUTH team must venture closer to the EAST VP building to get to their house. Bypassing the house sight radius puts the EAST house much further away. So mid game an MG in the EAST VP house would make the EAST fuel harder to contest and also have a slightly more dangerous RETREAT PATH. You could be closer to the house and on RED cover for a longer period of time.

There's also disparity in space late game because of the house carcass north side of mid vp whereas its mirrored by destroyable trees in the south. Its way easier to hold mid vp from south

Agreed! The house needs to go.

EARLY GAME:
- the NORTH has more sight blockers(aqua boxes) to deal with.
- the SOUTH gets yellow cover a little closer to the VP (31M vs 37M).
- the SOUTH can pop around the middle road and be in cover by the fuel. The NORTH has to travel several meters before reaching the mirroring cover. The truck right of the VP needs to be moved north by a few meters.

LATE GAME:
- The SOUTH has better flanking options with the two red side roads.
- The NORTH has the house carcass while south gets yellow cover. Once artillery starts the NORTH has much less space to hide in and should be at a disadvantage.
- The building also blocks sight making it much more difficult to setup AT guns, turretless vehicles, etc.

Thx for your Input.

There's also disparity in space late game because of the house carcass north side of mid vp whereas its mirrored by destroyable trees in the south. Its way easier to hold mid vp from south

Agreed! The house needs to go.

I agree!

About the rest i did not had the time to read and look into everything. Will do it probably next week.

Map got and is getting atm reworked as well like as for caen; only as sga file atm.

If you care:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/b9wxhnjec6669f7/4p_elst_outskirts.sga/file

Green.